This invention relates generally to carton feeding apparatus for providing a continuous supply of articles such as collapsed or folded cartons or carton blanks to a utilization device or apparatus.
Modern fabricating, processing and filling equipment operates at relatively high rates of speed in order to attain commercially economical production costs. To operate at these speeds, the processing equipment must be provided with a reliable and continuous supply of articles to be processed. Accordingly, specialized equipment sometimes called "feeding" or "infeeding" equipment, has been devised to meet this need.
One particularly successful type of infeed device is a so-called carousel-type feeder, such as those described and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,722,741 and 4,000,709. A carousel-type feeder for carton blanks is also more particularly described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,462.
The carousel-type feeders shown and described in the foregoing patents present a supply of can ends or cartons, as the case may be, to utilization equipment where, for example, can ends are attached to a can body, or the collapsed carton blanks are erected and filled with a desired product. The equipment can be easily adapted to handle a wide array of stackable products or parts, such as metal, plastic or paperboard lids, tubs, stampings or box flats.
The use of such carousel feed units with carton blanks requires somewhat more careful handling than for typical metal parts such as can ends. For example, it is important to carefully handle the stacked carton blanks so that the edges will not become damaged, bent or frayed during handling. This handling involves a transfer from the supply pockets or chambers of the infeed carousel apparatus to a receiving pocket or chamber or other intake device of the supply means for the processing machinery.
The above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,462 discloses and claims means for overcoming most of these problems However, there is room for further improvement. In typical carton filling apparatus, a supply of product is brought into the filling apparatus on one line and a supply of the collapsed or folded carton blanks is brought in generally from above the article or product infeed line on a relatively large disc- or wheel-like rotary infeed device. Generally speaking, the blanks are supplied to the rotary infeed device from a conveyor belt. As such, the conveyor belt is located a substantially vertical distance above the product infeed line and hence, an even greater distance above the factory floor.
The carousel-type feeder unit according to the aforementioned '462 patent, requires that the articles be transferred to the conveyor vertically downwardly from a bottom discharge end of a so-called pocket which contains a stack of the carton blanks. This, then, requires that the carousel-type rotary infeed device be physically located at a point such that its bottom or discharge area is vertically above the carton blank intake conveyor belt. The foregoing arrangement requires a relatively high overhead space on the factory floor. Moreover, it requires that the carousel-type device be mounted on an elevated platform, well above the article feed and packaging line, and consequently well above the factory floor. This in turn requires that an operator for the carousel feed device be stationed on the platform. In general, the primary task of the operator is to visually assure proper operation of the carousel infeed device, and more particularly to keep a plurality of supply pockets which rotate thereabout filled with carton blanks.
As such, the operator will be unable to monitor any other part of the processing equipment, thus leading to the need for additional operators for the other associated equipment and increasing labor costs of operation of the product filling line.